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Tag Archives: 0.5.7

Upgrades Rebalanced

In pre-0.5.7 versions of the game, the upgrade system, while seemingly versatile, often did not provide any real choices to players. Our analysis of the popularity of upgrades has shown that many upgrades were practically never chosen, especially upgrades for secondary armaments. We have overhauled the upgrade system to provide players with real options when enhancing their ships.

First Upgrade Slot

Almost all players mounted Main Battery Modification upgrades in the first slot because bonuses from other upgrades were too slight. With update 0.5.7, a new set of useful upgrades will be introduced to replace the old ones.

Removed Upgrades:

Main Battery Modification 1 (-20% to the risk of the main battery becoming incapacitated; -20% to main battery repair time; -20% to the risk of your ship’s magazine detonating)

Magazine Modification 1 (-70% to the risk of a ship’s magazine detonating)

Aiming System Modification 0 (+20% to traverse speed of main turrets and torpedo tubes; +20% to secondary battery maximum firing range; -40% to maximum dispersion of main and secondary battery shells). This upgrade will be available only for Premium Japanese ships with 140-mm main guns (currently:Iwaki, Yubari and Katori)

Second Upgrade Slot

For the second slot, four upgrades were combined to form two new enticing upgrades. Moreover, the Main Battery Modification upgrade will be more attractive because its penalty was reduced.

Gun Fire Control System Modification 1 (-7% to maximum dispersion of main battery shells)

Second Battery Modification 2 was used by only ~ 5% of the player base. Therefore, we decided to exclude it from the game. HMS Warpsite is the only exception, because it is the only ship where this modification is rather popular, so we have kept Second Battery Modification 2 for it. For all high-Tier ship owners who used this modification, we’ve boosted Second Battery Modification 3, which now provides several improvements to the secondaries. Main Calibre modifications gives some boosts to Secondaries as well.

Added Upgrades:

Artillery Plotting Room Modification 1 (+16% to main battery maximum firing range; -5% to maximum dispersion of secondary battery shells; +5% to secondary battery maximum firing range). This upgrade will be available only for US battleships

Reworked Upgrades:

Main Battery Modification 2 (+10% to main battery loading time; +15% to the main battery traverse speed): the penalty has been decreased to +5% to main battery loading time

Third Upgrade Slot

For this slot, the available upgrades are now more useful in terms of purposefully enhancing the performance of auxiliary armaments.

Reworked Upgrades:

Main Battery Modification 3 (-12% to main battery loading time; -17% to the main battery traverse speed): the penalty has been decreased to -13% to the main battery traverse speed

Artillery Plotting Room Modification 2 (-7% to maximum dispersion of main battery shells): the bonus has been increased to -11% to maximum dispersion of main battery shells. This upgrade will be available only for US battleships

AA Guns Modification 3 (+20% to average damage per second for AA mounts): the bonus has been increased to +25% to average damage per second for AA mounts

Secondary Battery Modification 3 (-20% to secondary battery loading time): the bonus has been increased to -25% to secondary battery loading time, and new bonuses have been added, namely +20% to secondary battery maximum firing range and -15% to maximum dispersion of secondary battery shells

Fifth Upgrade Slot

We increased the usefulness of an upgrade that was rarely used by players.

Reworked Upgrades:

Propulsion Modification 2 (-20% to the time it takes to reach full power): the bonus has been increased to -50% to the time it takes to reach full power. Moreover, with this upgrade the engine is automatically boosted by 50% while the ship accelerates from 0 to 6 knots (in both ahead and astern directions)

Compensations

To make switching to the new upgrade system more comfortable for players, you will receive automatic compensations for all alterations that significantly affect gameplay.

For all the Main Battery Modification 1 upgrades, the same number of Magazines Modification 1 upgrades will be added and available for mounting

All the Main Battery Modification 1 upgrades and Torpedo Tubes Modification 1 upgrades will be replaced by the Main Armaments Modification 1 upgrades

All the AA Guns Modification 1 upgrades and Secondary Battery Modification 1 upgrades will be replaced by the Auxiliary Armaments Modification 1 upgrades

All the Gun Fire Control System Modification 1 upgrades will be replaced by Aiming Systems Modification 1 upgrades

All Secondary Battery Modification 2 and Torpedo Tubes Modification 2 upgrades will be removed. You will receive a compensation of 500,000 credits for each removed upgrade

Weather Improvements

Visual-only weather effects were replaced with cyclone weather conditions (with a 10% chance of a Cyclone occurring during battle) for battles between Tier VII-X ships on the following maps:

The Atlantic

Islands of Ice

Hotspot

Trap

Two Brothers

Land of Fire

Trident

Shatter

Okinawa

Neighbors

Estuary

The Hydroacoustic Search and Surveillance Radar consumables will now work at the maximum corresponding distance, even during cyclone weather conditions. This change is based on analysis of the feedback we received from players after the introduction of weather mechanics in version 0.5.5.

We reworked the effects for interaction between the water surface and in-game objects. Now visual water deformation will be increased for the following events: bomb explosions, ship destructions, torpedo wakes, ship wakes for some ships, and firing main guns.

New Maps

Added a new map, “Warrior’s Path”, for battles between Tier VII-X ships. Warrior’s Path is an archipelago near Canadian shores engulfed by cold and hostile seas. The opposing teams will have to navigate through numerous islands in order to engage their enemy.

Some existing maps have been modified:

The “Islands of Ice” map has been reworked after we conducted surveys and analysed feedback from players. We came to the conclusion that the middle part of this map is too open, which makes it less tactically diverse. Moreover, we have decided to remove the “diagonal” placement of key areas, because they were placed too far from each other

The “Islands of Ice” and “North” maps now will be available again for Ranked and Team Battles

On the “Atlantic” map, a strait in the island has been added. We made this change to allow players to escape concentrated enemy fire on their way to the centre of the map

After we analysed the statistical data and feedback from players, we made the “Strait” map unavailable for battles where Tier VII ships are present

Standard Battle mode was removed from battles between Tier IX-X ships because of the following reasons:

In this mode, bases on most maps were located far from each other. Because of this, players were often unable to have enough impact on the outcome of the battle

There were no intermediate “points of interest”, where the most exciting action usually takes place

Protecting the base was very important for the outcome of the battle. Because of this, players tended to use more passive tactics, which had a negative impact on the gameplay dynamics

Spectator Camera

We have improved the functionality of the spectator camera that the player sees after their ship is destroyed.

Spotting range is no longer taken into account when allies and spotted enemy ships are displayed

Now, you can track shells and torpedoes fired by allied ships, as well as their squadrons

Introduced a Free Camera mode

Control the Free Camera using [A], [S], [W] and [D] keys, as well as with the scroll wheel of the mouse (change elevation)

Press [SHIFT] to switch modes

By pressing the [SPACE] key you can move the camera to any allied ship/squadron you see in the centre of the screen (crosshair)

Interface Tweaks

We have improved the post-battle statistics screen, especially the Detailed Report tab:

The amount of damage will now be highlighted in bold, and the normal font style will be used for the number of shots fired. For both of the statistical parameters above, we added pop-up windows hints with detailed information

Added a pop-up hint with detailed information about the aircraft shot down by the player and the player’s aircraft that were destroyed

Added pop-up hints with detailed information about damage received from bombs, torpedoes, and artillery shells

In the Credits and XP tab, added a pop-up hint with information about a Commander. This window will be displayed when the cursor is placed on the Commander’s name

We enhanced the layout of in-game surveys. Now available responses will be more numerous or more detailed

Battle Interface and HUD improvements:

If a ship has two main armaments (main battery and torpedoes) the reloading status panel will show the reloading indicators for both main armaments. To enable this option, use the corresponding interface item in the Controls tab

For the alternative battle interface mode — which can be activated by pressing the [Alt] key or by setting the corresponding checkbox in the Controls tab, if not permanently enabled in the settings — Tiers of the corresponding ships will now be displayed for both allied and enemy aircraft

Now players will be able to switch to Binocular View when their ship’s torpedo armament is selected

Other Changes and Fixes

Audio Enhancements

Enhanced special sounds for “distant events” in battle

Enhanced the sound of an air attack on a ship by bombers

Improved the ship destruction sound: now the character of this sound will depend on the way the ship was destroyed

Enhanced sounds that play when the player’s ship is hit

Improved the sound notification for Surveillance Radar activation

Optimised and enhanced sounds for low sound quality settings

Improved dropping sounds for ejected main battery shell cases

Game interface sounds have been improved

Economics

Within the framework of a systematic approach to researching and unlocking ships and their modules, we have removed all of the modules that were duplicated on several ships and names for many start modules have been corrected. Now every ship has its own unique modules. This change will have no significant effect on the gameplay process. All the progress made by players before this change is implemented will be retained.

Ships

As part of the game improvement process, we started a gradual revision of all armour models. Our aim is to bring the armour models, created at different stages of the project’s development, to the same level of detail. In version 0.5.7, we more precisely defined the destroyers’ armour models. In some cases this lead to a slight redistribution of HP within parts of the ship. Armour interaction with HE shells and bombs is not affected.

New warships were added into the game client:

New ships USS Arizona and Ashigara were added into the game to be tested by Supertesters and WG employees. These ships are unavailable for purchase, but players can encounter them in battle.

The following ships have been changed in the following way:

Changed the default angle of fire for small-calibre AA guns

Revised the display of halyards, signals and ensigns from various distances

Murmansk: revised the display of stars on its port and starboard

Colorado: revised the display of its textures from various distances

Benson: removed the overlap of its torpedo tubes with the ship structures

ArkansasBeta: revised the display of the crane and its model

Chapayev: corrected defects in its textures and details, and revised the shape of the stern funnel

NewOrleans: removed the overlap of ventilation elements with the aft main battery turret

Myogi: removed the overlap of main gun barrels and the catapult gear

Molotov: fixed an error because of which the Manual Fire Control for AA Armament skill was not working properly in some cases

Udaloi: fixed small errors in in-game cameras for this ship

Kirov: corrected models and rotation of its radars

Budyonny: fixed a bug that caused some objects from its model to remain visible above the water surface after the ship had been destroyed

Technical Improvements

Time required for loading ship models during a battle has been decreased. Now ship models will load faster on some computers and there will be less cases where a ship becomes visible to the player only after a delay, though it should have already been visible according to the ship detectability/spotting mechanics

The game content in .pkg archive files has been reorganised, in order to further optimise the utilisation of resources. Foliage and skybox textures have been moved to map archive files. User interface items, particles, effects and camouflage patterns have been moved to individual archive files

Introduced notifications about planned server restarts. These notifications will be shown in Port or in Battle Chat if the player is in battle

In-Game Logic and Interface

Corrected an error with the in-game logic, relating to the effect of the Survivability Expert skill. In some cases, this error resulted in the ship repair cost being added instead of deducted. Moreover, sometimes this error made it possible to earn the Dreadnought achievement with a ship that is not capable of recovering HP with the use of the Repair Party consumable. We also revised the description of this skill

Fixed a bug because of which the artillery camera’s point of view was passing through a ship’s superstructures when tracking the fired shell

Corrected visuals for flooding effects when switching cameras after a ship is destroyed

Corrected the transition between zoom levels when in Binocular View

Revised the hint displayed when the player is trying to demount a permanent camouflage

Fixed a bug because of which the on-screen fire effect did not disappear after the player’s ship had been totally destroyed

Fixed the bug that resulted in the camera’s point of view passing inside some islands

Fixed the error because of which non-default key bindings were sometimes not kept after restarting the game client

Fixed the bug related to incorrect camera positioning, when going back to the battle HUD from the Tactical Map view

Fixed the bug that made it impossible to assign a priority target for secondary guns when the target was beyond the maximum firing range of main guns

Fixed the bug that caused the command to close the game client to be ignored when in the Basic Training screen

Fixed the bug that caused the animation for the active Defensive AA Fire consumable to be still shown when there were no enemy aircraft within the corresponding ship’s AA engagement area radius

Fixed the error that caused the checkbox for enabling/disabling the display of a “circle” for the main battery firing range to be available in the Minimap settings when playing with aircraft carriers

Fixed the error that sometimes caused the wrong number of aircraft that a player destroyed in battle to be displayed in the post-battle results screen

Fixed the bug that made it impossible for the player to recover an air squadron

Fixed the bug related to the displaying of completed missions and challenges in the post-battle results screen

Fixed the error that caused the wrong amount of XP earned by the player in the last battle to be displayed when the player had damaged their allies in that battle

Fixed incorrect behaviour of crosshair-related hints when in Binocular View

Other

Fixed the error that caused the game client to terminate unexpectedly during the Introductory Mission

Fixed the operation of the Vertical synchronisation option

Fixed some memory leaks in the game client

Fixed the error that caused the game client to terminate unexpectedly when launched on a computer under heavy load

Removed files that became unused in the current version

Fixed the error that caused the game client to crash under certain conditions when loading into the battle